The case of Scott Carson brings to a head one of the perils of operating with a large squad. Rafa Benitez is the latest in a long line of big club mangers to find themselves in the position of having two quality players, or in this case keepers – Carson and Jose Reina, vying for the same position.

The situation is complicated by Carson’s loan spells at Sheffield Wednesday, Charlton and Aston Villa. Although this kept him happy by giving him first team football, and us happy by keeping him on our books ready for a recall if Reina got injured, it has ultimately caused what I believe will his departure from Liverpool Add to this some England appearances and one can hardly expect Carson to be content with keeping the bench warm as Jose Reina’s understudy or go through a repeat of the last two season’s loan arrangements?

Nowadays when you mention Carson many will think of the mistake he made at Wembley playing for England against Croatia in the Euro 2008 qualifier. However he has shown enough for any top flight club to be confident about sticking in their first eleven.

Carson’s departure, probable departure, seems to be complicated by our ongoing spat with Villa over Gareth Barry. I don’t think Villa, mainly through the unnecessarily personal and OTT outburst of Martin O’Neil, have particularly endeared themselves to Rafa so presumably he is in no mood to be benevolent over a deal involving Carson. The £10m valuation represents a tidy profit on the £1m we paid for him but has been called “stupid” money by Carson himself. Rafa, for the second time in a month, has had to defend himself against accusations from Villa, first over Barry and now the Carson fee.

“It is a matter between the clubs. We agreed the fee with Aston Villa last year. The fee has been there for one season so to talk about the fee now is not correct. We agreed with Martin O’Neill and that was the situation,”

£10m for a keeper? Too high? Especially when you consider that Villa already paid £2m to take him on loan? In our defence one could say that the fee reflects the fact that Carson is 22, an international keeper and could play for another ten years, even more. I guess the obvious thing would be to bundle the Carson and Barry deals together, however reading between the lines there seems to be a long way go yet and quotes coming from Anfield and Villa Park suggest that negotiations will be far from straight forward let alone cordial?

So that was the article written until the “revelation” that Obafemi Martins has been offered to us. That’s the same Obafemi Martins who was linked with Arsenal and same the Obafemi Martins who was linked with Chelsea and same Obafemi Martins who doubtlessly be linked with Man United soon?. My his agent is busy, and predictable!

Finally it’s interesting to see that Fergie has suddenly become an expert on morality. He’s given Real Madrid the long distance hair dryer treatment over their lack of morals in light of their behaviour over the links with Ronaldo.

Oscar Wilde said “Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people whom we personally dislike.” Fergie is clearly miffed about Real’s behaviour however when people start to lecture about morals you need to sure of your ground and your past as you may open yourself to accusations of hypocrisy predictably Fergie has fallen in this trap. It’s strange that his “enlightenment” didn’t extend to his decision to sell Beckham and van Nistelrooy to Madrid, no moral stance taken there eh Sir Alex? He should remember that he’s only won the European Cup and not been handed the Ten Commandments or asked to write a post script to the Bible!

1 Response to Rafa’s Carson conundrum, Martins mischief and the gospel according to Saint Fergie!

Yes it’s a shame that Carson will go. There was a time when I thought he might have been a better bet than reina but I think that since his howler against Croatia his form has suffered.

Rafa can’t stand in his way and deny him a permanent move where he will enjoy what he deserves – a regular starting place.

It is a difficult situation for clubs at times when it comes to signing goalkeepers. Ideally they need goalkeepers that are happy to be number two’s and yet be good enough to step in when required. Obviously goalkeepers are not going to be happy with such an arrangement if they are good enough. The other side of the coin though is the situation that we are in at the moment – ie Itandje seems to be happy as a No.2 but is not good enough.

Still, I hope that we get the right money for Carson and that we use that money wisely.